by Tijan
I expected her to cower or flinch, but she only met my gaze full on and let out a soft sigh. “That hard drive had his business on it. I’m sure there was valuable stuff on there. He’ll be furious.”
I straightened, getting a dose of humility. “I won’t let you take the blame for that. I did it.”
“No.” She raised her voice, her eyes urgent. “You can’t say anything. He can never know it was you. He’ll hurt you if he does. He won’t care about the reason you did it.”
“Morgan.” The house was hers. He put those cameras up without her permission. She had to know. I destroyed his private property, but in the grand scheme of things, Matthew did so much worse.
“I don’t want to hear it.”
It clicked with me then. She wasn’t reacting because she wasn’t reacting. She was on lock-down. I could feel the distance between us, which only got wider with each flick of her eyes toward the window.
She wanted to bolt. She wanted to go numb to this world again.
“You’re going to go.”
I wasn’t asking because it was inevitable. I wouldn’t be able to keep her there. She needed to go.
She jerked her head in a stiff nod. “I have to. I can’t—” She gulped again. “I can’t breathe here right now.” She looked at me, searching for understanding, maybe even a sliver of permission.
I nodded, giving her both. Giving her whatever she needed. “Go.”
She started, not waiting another second.
“Just—”
She was already at the patio door, but she looked back.
I felt for her. There was a look of agony on her face as she waited.
“Just come back. Okay?”
She nodded again, but then she was across the room in a heartbeat. She caught my face between her palms, and her lips were on mine in the next second. She pressed up on her tiptoes, her mouth commanding and loving, harsh and soft all at the same time.
I caught her face in my hands, too, and kissed her back.
She was saying goodbye, but she was also telling me she was coming back. I tasted her, slipping my tongue inside, and she moaned, her hands moving to grasp at my shirt. I tipped her head back, my lips becoming softer against hers, coaxing.
She didn’t want to go. I could feel the struggle in her, and the longer I kissed her, the more I knew I could get her to stay.
I poured everything I had into that kiss.
She moaned. It was slight, but I heard it, and then her entire body melted against mine.
I swept her up, bending and grabbing behind her legs. I never pulled away. I never stopped kissing her as I carried her into the bedroom. The light stayed off. Nothing was touched so the window shade was slightly pulled back, letting the moonlight cast a reflection over the bed. As I set her on the bed, I settled beside her, kissing her still.
I think I would’ve kissed her for the rest of our lives if I had to at that moment. My desperation to keep her with me, to love her, taste her, explore her, worship her was all-consuming. I needed to keep reminding her that she was human.
She wanted to pull away, go hide again, maybe feel the adrenaline rush of being on Shiloh or running with the herd.
I would give her that rush.
I began to explore her body, my hand stroking her stomach and then slipping past her jeans. I didn’t wait. As my tongue was brushing against hers, my fingers went under her underwear and slipped inside her. I thrust them deep, and she surged in my arms. She came alive, gasping, and her head fell back to the pillow. I rose over her, finding her mouth again. I wouldn’t leave it for long, no way. It was my lifeline to her.
I worked her to a climax, loving how she gasped for me, how her hips began to move with my fingers. Shifting my weight so I was partially resting over her, I used my other hand to touch her stomach. I pushed her shirt up, bending to kiss her there. Then back to her mouth, another long kiss.
My hand caressed her, grazing over her ribs, encircling her breasts. I dropped to kiss her other breast. Then, as my thumb rubbed the moisture from my mouth away, I went back to kissing her. All the while, I kept sliding my fingers in and out.
I could feel her body lifting off the bed with each stroke. She began to shudder, and I paused.
I kissed her throat, tasting where she exposed her neck for me, how she was moving to lead me where she wanted me to taste her. I moved around her throat before dropping my lips back to her breast. My tongue laved over her, and she moaned again, grabbing the back of my head.
Her hips were moving still, lifting and rotating with my fingers.
She was going to come soon. I felt her tighten around me, the spasms rolling over her, but I kept moving my fingers.
She gasped, arching up completely.
My mouth was on her breast, but then she choked out a gasp and scrambled toward me. She grabbed my shirt, pulling it up and then off.
My dick was so hard that if I let go of the top button, he would bust the zipper open. I knew I shouldn’t have, but as she climaxed in my arms, I pulled my fingers out and then rested over her. We were groin to groin, and I could feel her entrance. I wanted in her.
God. Fuck.
I didn’t know if I could hold out.
I wanted to savor this, draw it out, and make her addicted to me.
Holding her thigh flat against the mattress, I ground into her.
Her legs twitched. She tried to tighten them against me, but I didn’t let her.
She looked at me, biting back a grin. I gave her a wolfish grin in return, my eyes eating up every inch of her exposed skin.
Perfection.
And every inch of her was mine.
I let out a growl again and bent, my teeth lightly nipping her breast.
She cried out, but when I thought she would catch my face and lift my mouth to hers again, she pushed my hand aside and reached for my pants. She had the zipper down in a flash, then I was out, and she wrapped a hand around me.
We rolled and she rose above me.
Still holding me, her eyes holding mine at the same time, she impaled me, sheathing herself down on me, and then we both went still at the contact.
I let out a shallow breath, my eyes darting to hers.
She was grinning, and she bit her lip again.
I groaned, catching her lips with mine.
Laughing softly, the sound caressing my mouth, she began to move for me. Her hips rolled back and forth, and then I took over. I couldn’t hold back.
I pulled her back underneath me.
In.
Out.
I began moving faster as she deepened the kiss, her tongue finding mine.
I couldn’t get close enough to her. I wrapped my arm around her back, crushing her to me. I thrust in, going deep. I pushed all the way until I felt her wall before pulling back out, only to go in again. I paused there, grinding into her, and she began to whimper. Her mouth fell open, a throaty moan leaving her.
This wasn’t enough. I needed to be deeper inside her.
“Do you trust me?” I panted as I ground into her again.
Her lust-filled eyes held mine. “Yes.”
I shifted, pulling her legs from around my waist and lifting them so they rested on my shoulders. Then I slid back in, and this time I could go deeper than I ever had been. Her mouth fell open, a silent cry ripping free as her back arched and her eyes darkened further with hunger and pleasure.
“Harder. I want you to fuck me.”
Holy shit.
My dick twitched in need. “You sure?”
“Yes.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me down so I was staring right into her face. I braced myself with my other hand, but I had her hand pinned to the bed on the other side. Her knees bent, resting over my arms. “Goddammit, Brody.”
I groaned. I was addicted to her. I knew this wasn’t just fucking. I wasn’t just reminding her that she was human. I was trying to brand her. I was trying to make her feel she was mine so deep inside that she’d never leave ag
ain.
My hand flexed around hers, digging into the sheets, and then I did as she asked.
I fucked her, rough and hard—unrelenting.
My body stretched out, and I kept thrusting into her.
I felt her come again, her back arching off the bed as she gasped, letting herself shatter, but I didn’t stop. I needed my release. My body was demanding it, burning for it. I still held off. I kept sliding in and out, going deeper and deeper until I couldn’t stop my release from ripping through me. It was like a rope stretched as tight as it could go, and then it snapped, recoiling with passion.
My body was convulsing.
Pulsating.
Trembling.
So was hers.
As I slipped out of her, I searched for her mouth. It was becoming a drug to me. I nuzzled her jaw, and she turned, her lips finding mine. It was a soft and sweet kiss, drawn-out, and I was panting afterward.
So was she, her chest lifting up and down as she caught her breath.
I held on to her, wrapping her tight in my arms, and I buried my head into the crook of her neck and shoulder. She smelled of the wild. Fresh air and the earth with a slight hint of vanilla, and she was mine.
I dropped another soft kiss to her shoulder.
We didn’t talk the rest of the night, and I rose above her once more.
But she never left.
She never left.
Morgan
I was in the barn a week later.
I wanted to check on the horses because they weren’t getting brushed down or washed at the end of their long days. The staff wasn’t taking appropriate care of them, so I got into the habit of sneaking in at night and doing it myself.
Four days ago, Brody woke alone and came looking for me, and since then, he had helped me when they weren’t shooting late into the night. So as I was finishing putting Butter into her stall, I didn’t react when I heard the barn door rolling open.
The thought that it was Brody settled me, but then I froze.
An alarm went off.
He was working tonight and said he wouldn’t be back till four in the morning. Plus, he never used the big door. He jumped the fence and came in through the back.
“The horse handler thanked me for brushing down the horses, or having someone do it. I didn’t know what she was talking about, and then it hit me yesterday.”
My frozen state didn’t thaw.
Matthew had been gone on a business trip, and while I knew Finn told him what happened, he hadn’t been back since.
Seeing him a few feet away—he was back now.
His arm rested on the barn door like he would block me if I tried to run out that way.
Seeing I didn’t bolt, he nodded to himself, his hand dropping from the doorway and sliding into his pocket. He was dressed like he’d come straight from a meeting, but his collar was pulled out and the top few buttons of his shirt were undone. His hair wasn’t slicked back like it normally was. It was messy.
He looked tired. There were bags under his eyes.
“You’re almost becoming normal again, a regular tenant of the Kellerman estate.”
Was that true?
Since the night Brody destroyed his hard drive, I hadn’t been able to pull myself from his arms. I slept in his bed every night, left to go see the herd when he was working, and timed it so I was always back around the same time he was.
It gave me a thrill every time I walked in to find him already waiting for me, knowing I’d be in his arms within moments. He always showered before coming to bed, and I showered with him those times. I no longer smelled like one of the herd, and the stallion hadn’t liked it. He had taken to rearing back when I approached, but Shiloh never left my side. Shoal didn’t either. After a while, he accepted my new scent, but I knew he was unsettled by it.
“What do you want, Matthew?”
His head lifted, resignation weighing on his shoulders. He swallowed once and then murmured, “I’m told you destroyed my computer.”
I lifted my head. “Not your computer. Your hard drive.”
“And what gave you the impression you could touch my computer, much less destroy it?” His eyes were narrowed to slits. His anger just underneath his surface.
It struck me then how much we had both changed.
A month ago, Matthew would’ve just been happy to be talking to me. That was gone.
“You violated my privacy, and the evidence was on that computer. You’re goddamn right I destroyed it.” I narrowed my eyes to slits. “I’d do it again too.”
His head bobbed back a centimeter. I had surprised him.
“You saw?”
Sensing my unease, Butter popped her head back over the stall door and began nuzzling my cheek. She was not only trying to soothe me but also seeing if I had an extra treat for her. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small apple. I palmed it as she leaned forward, nibbling gently.
“I know what was on that hard drive. I saw where you paused it.” I was lying, but I didn’t care. I wished I had been the one to destroy it. I would’ve had the entire herd run over it.
He jerked back, his eyes rounding.
“You are here because I allow you to be here. You continue to be here because I allow it.”
I turned back to Butter, sliding my hand up her neck, my fingers running through her mane. “I won’t be spied on. By you or anyone else.” I faced him again in time to see him flinch.
“We were so happy to have you and Karen in our lives,” he said in an almost hoarse voice. As if that could excuse what he’d done.
I turned back to Butter, but he kept talking. “We lost our own mom, and our dad.” He exhaled sharply. “You know how he is.”
I heard the snap of the straw under his feet as he took a step closer. Only one.
I jerked, but I was remembering.
Peter Kellerman scared me. He always had.
“She softened him, somehow. And for a moment, I thought we could have a family. We all did. Us. Karen. And you. You were our littlest sister, and we all adored you.”
He was right. She made Peter Kellerman happy, but she made all of us happy.
Then she was gone, and I was back there that day.
I heard the pounding on the door.
I was running for the door until that sound, and then she screamed my name.
And like then, ice ran through my veins.
It was taking me away, pulling me back to memories I didn’t want to remember.
His voice drifted to me again, softer. “I can’t imagine what you must feel—”
He kept talking, but a buzzing sound drowned him out. It was growing louder and louder.
“Morgan,” she whispered, kneeling before me.
I saw the terror in her eyes, and that pounding kept going.
I gasped, silently, but Matthew didn’t notice. I slammed back to the present day, but feeling faint, I grabbed on to Butter’s stall. I was going to fall. Pressure pushed down on my chest. I felt my lungs shrinking in size, and I gasped silently, struggling to draw air in.
I couldn’t.
I was choking.
I was going to die.
I could hear his voice, a blast of bass sounding from the distance, but it was as if there were thick walls separating us and his words couldn’t penetrate them.
Then, while I clutched on to Butter’s stall, the pressure started to dissipate. I felt my lungs growing back to their normal size, and suddenly, I could breathe like normal again. My mouth opened wide, and I gasped in large mouthfuls of oxygen.
I grew light-headed and dizzy from the abrupt change.
My arm was shaking hard enough that Butter looked to see what was rattling her door. She began sniffing at my hand. My other had fallen, dropping the last little bit of apple onto the ground. She was searching for more.
I couldn’t move. My arm was too unsteady. I would fall completely.
“—that had always been my hope growing up, and you’ve grown into a be
autiful woman. You’re smart. You’re strong. I know how much strength you have—”
My head felt as if it weighed five tons as I lifted it enough to look at my stepbrother.
He’d been watching me, talking, giving me his pitch, and he hadn’t noticed a thing.
Relief knocked my knees together, almost sweeping me down from the movement. I called for Shiloh. I had to. I let out a high-pitched whistle.
Then another.
“—can do so many things. You don’t have to waste your heart on this man. He’ll break your heart. I know this. I know guys like him. You might not believe me now, but I want the best for you.”
What?
I opened my eyes wider, trying to see Matthew more clearly, but my vision was swimming. He was going in and out of focus. He just kept talking. He just kept saying things, not seeing that I was struggling.
Was that a good thing?
When we were kids, he was always the one to protect me. He would have seen that I was struggling, that I couldn’t breathe, and he would have helped me.
He wasn’t that Matthew anymore. He changed over the years. I sensed the shift the night he had me sign the papers to approve this movie. He was desperate, hungry, and motivated. And angry . . . so, so angry.
It was there when they began the movie too.
Except his desperation switched. He had gotten what he wanted. He wanted the movie. He was going to use it for something, I didn’t know what. Fame? Power? Money? I had no idea. I didn’t care, but the movie was underway, and I stayed away. But Brody brought me in, made me feel safe and protected. Yet, there I was in the barn, experiencing an attack worse than any I’d had since I was ten years old, and Brody wasn’t around and Matthew didn’t care.
A whinny.
A lifeline.
I whipped around, almost drunkenly, and my shoulder slammed into the other side of Butter’s stall door. She was nibbling at my shoulder, only her lips. I managed to lift one of my hands to pat her on the nose, to reassure her I was fine and that I wasn’t hurt. She nudged me again before shifting and stomping and moving her body in the stall.
“What was that?”
Finally.
Matthew stopped talking. He strode toward me. I tensed, flattening myself against Butter’s door completely.